Combined portfolio and easel



(No Model.)'

L. PRANG.

GOMBINED PORTFOLIOQ AND EASEL. No. 357,625. Patented Feb. 15 1887.

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u. mzns. Pholv-Lflhagmpher, Washington, In:

NITED STATES PATENT Orrrcn.

LOUIS PRANG, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

COMBINED PORTFOLIO AND EASEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 357,625, dated February 15, 1887. Application filed August 17, 1886. Serial No. 211,109. (No model.) I

.To all whom) it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LOUIS PRANG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Preservation and Display of Pictures; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention embraces in one device the advantages of a portfolio, a picture-frame, and.

an easel, and is related to the devices in each of those classes.

The accompanying drawings illustrate its appearance and construction, and the manner in which it is used.

In Figure 1 the portfolio is shown closed, the drawing being an elevation of one of the flat sides. Fig. 2 is'an elevation of the back, Fig. 3 of the front, and Fig. 4 of the end. Fig. 5 is an elevation or plan of the portfolio open and lying flat, the picture-frame being still closed. In Fig. 6 a like view is given, except that the picture-frame is lifted and laid over flat. Fig. 7 is an end elevation in which both the frame and one cover are lifted and partly laid over. In Fig. 8 a cross-section of the closed portfolio is shown, and in Fig. 9 a similar crosssection on a larger scale, both sections being on the line a: as, Fig. 1. Fig. 10 is also an enlarged section on line y y, Fig. 6, with picture-frame raised. In Figs. 11 and 12 the portfolio is shown in use for the exhibition of the pictures it contains, the former being an end and the latter a front elevation.

This invention consists of a portfolio formed of the two side boards, a and I), joined together by a back, d, of leather or cloth, stiffened along its middle by a half-round strip of wood or other suitable substance, so as to be flexible only where said back joins the side boards. One of the side boards, b, is provided on its inner surface with a flat receptacle formed by the three rabbeted sides, f, made of wood or heavy mill-board. The picture-frame c is thin and ornamented on its outer side with velvet, embossed or engraved work, gilding, &c., as is usual on pictureframes. In size this frame is adapted to drop into the rabbet and lie flush with the pieces f in the manner shown in Fig.

5. Thispicture-fralne is, furthermore, hinged to one of the sides of the shallow receptacle formed by the three pieces f, at the place marked 9 in the several figures, so that it can be raised, as in Figs. 7, 9, and 10, or turned over entirely, as in Fig. 6, which is desirable to permit of the arrangement of the pictures or engravings in the flat receptacle or tray provided for them.

It will be seen that a collection may be well preserved and protected from injury by my invention, because while the individual sheets are not pressed and crushed together they are prevented from rubbing or grinding upon each other, due'to the support given by the sides of the rectangular tray as well as the protection which the rabbet gives against pressure or friction on the face of the plates. In this connection it should also be explained that the back (I, when the portfolio is closed, lies flat and solid against the open side of the shallow receptacle, forming for the time a fourth side, so-that the plates are preserved within a thin flat'box. A rabbeted strip, like f, and made fast, like it, to the side board, I), so as to form a fourth side, is intentionally omitted, for the reason that it would interferewith the introduction of the pictures into the fiat receptacle and their subsequent handling, especially when they are being displayed; but of course such a strip might be added in special cases without affecting the character of my invention.

hen in use as'an easel, my portfolio is placed, as in Figs. 11 and 12, upon a table or other supporting-surface. For this purpose the board covers are turned over backward till they form with each other an acute angle, and the picture takes a position at right angles to the direction of the observers sight. Viewed from the front the portfolio will then disappear entirely, and the whole will produce the eflect upon the observer of a picture suitably framed, whereby its artistic effect will be correspondingly increased. It is plain that while the portfolio is in this position all the pictures in it can be seen to advantage in rotation by simply removing them one by one from the back to the front, or vice versa, to facilitate which, as before explained, a fourth side of the flat receptacle containing the pictures has not been supplied, except by the half-round strip in the back (I, which takes that position only when the portfolio is closed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 15-

1. A combined portfolio and easel for exhibiting pictures, consisting of aflat tray having three fixed sides, the fourth side hinged to the tray, and a cover hinged to said fourth side, in combination with a picture-frame also hinged to the tray, substantially as described.

2. In a combined portfolio and easel for exhibiting pictures, the combination of a flat rectangular tray having three fixed and one hinged side, with a cover for the tray hinged to the hinged side, and a picture-frame intervening between the cover and the tray and hinged to the latter, substantially as described.

3. An easel or like device for exhibiting pictures, consisting of the two side boards of a portfolio connected by a flexible back inclined toward each other, a receptacle for holding the pictures, and a picture-frame hinged thereto, substantially as and for the purpose described.

4:. A receptacle or tray for holding pictures, consisting of three rabbeted side pieces, as f, attached to one of the side boards of a portfolio, in combination with the back thereof, as d, adapted to form the fourth side when said receptacle is closed by the other side board of the portfolio, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

LOUIS PRANG.

\Vitnesses:

AMAND'Us MEYER, GEORGE W. THOMAS. 

